This chapter claims that identities tend to be things that people feel embattled about. Is this just a fact about contemporary English-speaking rich Western culture, or universal? You’d think that people could derive an identity about being in a group of powerful elites or something.
Feeling embattled is one of two sources of identity that the book mentions, the other being pride. Re-reading just now, I see that her examples of identity through pride were also embattled ones (formula/breast-feeding activists, cryptocurrency proponents, polyamorists), but it doesn’t seem necessary, so patriot and gymbro identities fit in the pride category.
A possible counterexample: I gather that many people identify as being part of the USA, which is the most powerful country on the planet. Do they think of themselves as beset by iniquity from all sides?
OK there’s something important here I think. To some degree, I ‘identify’ as being an Australian, due in part to the fact that I am an Australian (but also in part to the fact that I don’t live in Australia). But I don’t think of Australians as an embattled group, and I also don’t think this identity hinders my ability to reason about Australian affairs. So maybe there’s a thing where there are different ways people can have identities that have different impacts on rationality.
It’s hard to know what patriots “really think,” but I loosely gather that the answer is yes? People in the militia movement are preparing to battle a tyrannical government. Many patriots seem to worry a lot about crime, terrorism, the threat of other powerful nations. The culture war makes people afraid of cultural as well as military threats.
Like, identities often feel ‘morally powerful’. As the book quotes Megan McArdle saying: “The messages that make you feel great about yourself… are the ones that suggest you’re a moral giant striding boldly across the landscape, wielding your inescapable ethical logic”. What’s so different about feeling like you’re a literal giant striding boldly across the landscape, wielding your inescapable power?
Chapter 13: How Beliefs Become Identities
This chapter claims that identities tend to be things that people feel embattled about. Is this just a fact about contemporary English-speaking rich Western culture, or universal? You’d think that people could derive an identity about being in a group of powerful elites or something.
Feeling embattled is one of two sources of identity that the book mentions, the other being pride. Re-reading just now, I see that her examples of identity through pride were also embattled ones (formula/breast-feeding activists, cryptocurrency proponents, polyamorists), but it doesn’t seem necessary, so patriot and gymbro identities fit in the pride category.
Good point!
A possible counterexample: I gather that many people identify as being part of the USA, which is the most powerful country on the planet. Do they think of themselves as beset by iniquity from all sides?
Another possible counterexample: being a gym bro is sort of an identity, but being a weak man isn’t really. I imagine gym bros don’t feel embattled?
There’s the counter-identity of scorning people who “pick stuff up and put it down again” and calling all sports “sportsball”, etc.
I think it’s related to what Julia mentioned about having an identity that’s just against some other group.
OK there’s something important here I think. To some degree, I ‘identify’ as being an Australian, due in part to the fact that I am an Australian (but also in part to the fact that I don’t live in Australia). But I don’t think of Australians as an embattled group, and I also don’t think this identity hinders my ability to reason about Australian affairs. So maybe there’s a thing where there are different ways people can have identities that have different impacts on rationality.
It’s hard to know what patriots “really think,” but I loosely gather that the answer is yes? People in the militia movement are preparing to battle a tyrannical government. Many patriots seem to worry a lot about crime, terrorism, the threat of other powerful nations. The culture war makes people afraid of cultural as well as military threats.
Like, identities often feel ‘morally powerful’. As the book quotes Megan McArdle saying: “The messages that make you feel great about yourself… are the ones that suggest you’re a moral giant striding boldly across the landscape, wielding your inescapable ethical logic”. What’s so different about feeling like you’re a literal giant striding boldly across the landscape, wielding your inescapable power?